This one, (apart from being my first 2012 submission woohoo!) is a part of an excercice/practice/challenge/art trade thingy i had with *rejlan over the summer. I was slowly working on it since then and this weekend i just sat down with the intention of finally finishing this.

The challenge was to create something without having the main focus on the face. Inspiration is the muro doodle *rejlan made on my journal and bjork (of course!). I really enjoyed working on this one. It's 100% digital and it just evovled on its own. Probably the reason why it took so long since i didn't have a sketch or first idea. But i certainly learned a lot about my workflow, composition (though i'm not sure how well it works here) and colour and tried many different brushes. And setting my standards higher.

The composition isn't too bad here. It's not the usual kind, as you've got the main subject matter off centre, and yet.. not right up into the corner because of the tree type thing in the background. I'm not too sure if that is a good or bad thing.

It also feels as if you've cut off a lot on the right side, with the hair and other bits. I do like the patterns, though, and how there is quite a bit of movement with the orange bits and the wavey bits too.

The colours aren't too bad.. the blue and orange contrast well, and the other colours complement each other.

In some ways, I feel there could be more detail where the 'Mother' is concerned, especially with the body? It feels like you've just smudged and covered it there.

This is so amazing!!! I love the way you did the light and how it hits her hair. I adore the detail of the coral behind her and the string of bubbles/pearls on the bottom right. I like it how you introduced some warmth with the orange thingys, but they could be 'more something', they lack the delicate detailing of the other elements of the artwork. Still this is so awesome that I feel like I should do like fifty more 'exercise/practice/challenge/art trade' thingys just to reach your level of 'exercise/practice/challenge/art trade' awesome thingy It's so awesome!!!

We have to do it again! Exercise/practice/challenge/art trades are fun ^^

Thank you ! ! ! The whole thing went through so many changes i thought it would never be done. I liked the orange thingies being kinda abstract (at first they were going to be a flock of these tiny little fish) but now that you pointed it out they seem misplaced. I'd love to do another exercise/practice/art trade again ! So whenever you're up for it tell me !